International
Texas Governor criticizes the new restrictions on Biden’s asylum: “They don’t change anything”
The governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, criticized the new restrictions on asylum at the border announced by the Administration of President Joe Biden, assuring that they will do nothing to reduce irregular crossings.
The measures, which came into effect this Wednesday morning, “do not change anything with respect to the chaos that Biden created on the border,” the Republican said in an interview with Fox News.
As of today, most people subject to detention crossing irregularly to the United States will be considered “unfit” to seek asylum, except in some exceptional cases or that meet stricter standards to apply to other types of protections.
The restrictions, harshly criticized by human rights groups, will only be lifted when irregular crossings drop from more than 2,500 to an average of 1,500 a day, a figure that has not been recorded since 2020.
Abbott, a close ally of former President Donald Trump and a pioneer in anti-immigrant measures in the United States, assured that what the restrictions will do is increase the number of people crossing without being detected by the authorities.
“It will attract more people to come to our country illegally; there are people who cross every day who do not want to ask for asylum, who are criminals, rapists, murderers,” he said in the interview.
To apply for asylum in the United States, the law stipulates that a person must already be in U.S. territory.
In 2023, the Biden government imposed a dating system, through a mobile application called CBP One, which limits the number of people who can show up each day at the ports of entry to ask for this protection. Throughout the border, which spans more than 3,139 kilometers, there are only 1,450 daily appointments available.
Desperate and in the face of the dangers of staying in Mexico, where they are subject to the violence of cartels and insecurity, many migrants decide to cross irregularly into the United States to surrender to the US authorities.
The new restrictions seek to prevent most of these people from seeking asylum and being quickly deported to their countries of origin or to Mexico if they are Mexican, Venezuelan, Cuban, Haitian or Nicaraguan.
However, it remains to be seen how the Government manages to enforce the new orders, since it has a limited capacity both to keep people in detention centers for migrants and to carry out deportation flights.
Hundreds of thousands of people have arrived so far this year at the southern border of the United States, the world’s first economy, in search of better opportunities and fleeing deep social and political crises in countries such as Venezuela, Nicaragua or Haiti.
The entire American continent is registering high numbers of people movement, with more than 21 million currently displaced, according to data from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
International
Trump criticizes Panama Canal fees and demands U.S. control over strategic waterway
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump criticized what he described as unfair fees imposed on American ships passing through the Panama Canal and threatened to demand that Washington take back control of the strategic waterway.
“Our Navy and commerce have been threatened in a very unjust and reckless way. The rates that Panama charges are ridiculous,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
The president-elect also denounced the growing influence of China in the canal, a situation he called concerning as U.S. businesses depend on the waterway to transport goods between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
“This complete scam against our country will end immediately,” he stated.
The Panama Canal, completed by the United States in 1914, was handed over to Panama under the 1977 treaty signed by Democratic President Jimmy Carter. Panama took full control of the commercial passage in 1999.
“It was exclusively for Panama to manage, not China or anyone else,” Trump said. “We would never allow it to fall into the wrong hands!”
“If Panama cannot guarantee a ‘safe, efficient, and reliable’ operation of the canal, we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to us in its entirety, without a doubt,” the Republican added.
Panamanian authorities did not immediately respond to Trump’s statements. While he will assume office on January 20, Trump has been exerting his political influence in the final days of President Joe Biden’s administration.
Five percent of global maritime trade passes through the Panama Canal, which allows vessels traveling from Asia to the U.S. East Coast to avoid the long and dangerous route around the southern tip of South America.
The countries that use the Panama Canal the most are the United States, China, Japan, and South Korea.
In October, the Panama Canal Authority reported earnings of nearly $5 billion in the last fiscal year.
International
Putin vows retaliation following drone attack on luxury building in Kazan
Russian President Vladimir Putin promised more “destruction” in Ukraine on Sunday, in response to a drone strike that hit a residential building in the city of Kazan, located in central Russia, on Saturday.
Russia accused Ukraine of launching a “massive” drone attack, which struck a luxury apartment block in Kazan, about 1,000 kilometers from the border.
Videos shared on Russian social media show drones hitting a high-rise glass building. No casualties have been reported as a result of the attack.
In his statements, Putin addressed the local leader of Tatarstan, the region where Kazan is located, during a virtual ceremony marking the opening of a road.
The attack in Kazan is the latest in a series of increasingly frequent bombings in this nearly three-year-old conflict. Ukraine has not commented on the attack.
Putin had previously threatened to strike the center of Kyiv with a hypersonic ballistic missile in response to Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory.
The Russian Ministry of Defense stated that the recent Russian strikes on Ukrainian energy facilities were retaliation for Ukraine’s use of Western-supplied missiles to target Russian territory.
International
Small plane crashes in Gramado, Brazil, killing nine people
At least nine people were killed on Sunday after a small aircraft crashed in a commercial area of the tourist city of Gramado, in the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, authorities confirmed.
“There are nine confirmed deaths according to Civil Defense services, and there are no survivors from the plane,” said Cléber dos Santos Lima, director of the Interior Police Department of the Civil Police of the state, in a statement to AFP.
Authorities have not yet confirmed the exact number of passengers and crew aboard the aircraft, a turbo-prop Piper Cheyenne 400. However, Civil Defense had previously stated that “preliminarily, the plane was carrying ten people.”
The plane crashed on Sunday morning “into the chimney of a building, then onto the second floor of a house, and finally fell onto a furniture store,” according to a statement from the Rio Grande do Sul Public Security Secretariat.
Trump criticizes Panama Canal fees and demands U.S. control over strategic waterway
Putin vows retaliation following drone attack on luxury building in Kazan
Small plane crashes in Gramado, Brazil, killing nine people
Tec de Monterrey honors one of its students for his contribution to nanotechnology in medicine
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